MIKE'S PHYTO PLASTIC INITIATIVE

Mike’s Phyto is committed to marine ecosystem sustainability and that’s why we clean local streams, rivers and waterways of plastics.

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP) is estimated by some scientists, at nearly twice the size of Texas, to contain about 7 millions tons of plastic. It is largely made up of a cloudy soup of photodegraded plastics called “microplastics” which hovers just below the surface.

Consider the effects of plastic on ocean life; National Geographic said it perfectly –

“Marine debris can be very harmful to marine life in the gyre. For instance, loggerhead sea turtles often mistake plastic bags for jellies, their favorite food. Albatrosses mistake plastic resin pellets for fish eggs and feed them to chicks, which die of starvation or ruptured organs.Seals and other marine mammals are especially at risk. They can get entangled in bandoned plastic fishing nets, which are being discarded more often because of their low cost. Seals and other mammals often drown in these forgotten nets — a phenomenon known as “ghost fishing.”

Marine debris can also disturb marine food webs in the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre. As microplastics and other trash collect on or near the surface of the ocean, they block sunlight from reaching plankton and algae below. Algae and plankton are the most commonautotrophs, or producers, in the marine food web. If algae and plankton communities are threatened, the entire food web may change. Animals that feed on algae and plankton, such as fish and turtles, will have less food. If populations of those animals decrease, there will be less food for apex predators such as tuna, sharks, and whales.

We care about life in our oceans and do not want to see this fragile ecosystem even further damaged by humans. With phytoplankton research growing into cross-industrial applications, we have a direct incentive to help do what we can to prevent mass phyto die-offs due to waste pollution.

By actively cleaning up the shores of rivers, creeks, and lakes of plastic waste, we prevent these plastics from traveling to the ocean where they photodegrade into a toxic soup. All plastics we collect in this manner are sent to a recycling plant.

Without intervention, it is only a matter of time before these plastics end up in the ocean. All the plastic waste we recycle is a promise to you, our hobby and our environment to be that much less plastic in our oceans.

Mike’s Phyto pledges to organize and fund and/or join with other environmental clean-up efforts to help keep plastics out of our oceans.